“Because seeing is believing, Chad. If he won’t give me answers, I’ll let him see for himself what I’m telling him.”
“You cansuggestthe things you were saying?”The other guy sounded as bewildered as I felt.
“Power of the mind and all that. Only reason I haven’t started manufacturing this is it’s too powerful.”
And I’d thought Red was bad enough.
“Jesus.”
“Perfect for torture. Secret weapon. You turning soft on me, Chad?”
“No,Capo.”
“Good to hear.”
I almost wished the caller would disconnect the line. But they didn’t. And I couldn’t.
I lay there in a stupor, hearing his screams as Dante didn’t give up the information fast enough and they fed him a small dose of yet another miserable drug Stan had created.
My throat felt tight, the urge to vomit was there, but…
God help me.
A part of me was impressed.
And I hated that part.
The pragmatic part.
The part that could look at a downed man and slice his femoral artery because my brain had catalogued it as the quickest way to drain him.
The part that had heard about her sister’s abuse by a man in power and thought,Nah, let’s not bother calling the cops. I’ll drag my other sister into a murder one charge.
I was a nurse. I cared. I wanted to heal.
But I couldn’t hide from the darker aspects of my nature.
My very own yin and yang.
I heard from Dante’s mouth about how an Italian family, the Favaros, operated the brothel where I’d been taken on behalf of a syndicate. Achildbrothel of all things.
I heard how an Albanian, the one I’d killed, was the front because if the Valentinis found out, they’d have come after the Favaros.
I heard about an illegal fighting ring housed underground, near my ‘cell.’
Dante wailed and sobbed throughout his torture.
A session that Stan brought about with his genius.
There was no denying that.
Hewasa genius.
Capable of… Fuck.
I lifted an aching arm to swipe at my swollen eyes and smooth over the curves of my tear-drenched cheeks.
Then I ended the call.
